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Food
for Thought:

“There is
one principle that should never be abandoned, namely, that the
rider must learn to control himself before he can control his
horse. This is the basic, most important principle to
be preserved in equitation.”

"I
can't tell you how happy we are with our County saddle.
It is so secure and comfortable on the trail.
He gaits much easier in it. I absolutely love it!"

“A
good horse will figure out things on his own.

You can see what’s in his heart. He won’t do one thing
while you’re watchin’, and another when you ain’t.
He’s all of a piece. When you’ve got a horse to that
place you can’t hardly get him to do somethin’ he
knows is wrong. He’ll fight you over it. And if you mistreat
him it just about kills him. A
good horse has justice in his heart.”

-
Cormac McCarthy, author of the Texas Trilogy including All the
Pretty Horses.

Jade
& Erica, getting a back tracing.

"Natural
horsemanship is about pushing your limits, accepting your weaknesses
and striving to be part of something that is beyond our immediate
comprehension.

Natural
horsemanship allows for the person to remember, with the help
of the horse, about secrets to harmony with the universe and with
ourselves that we humans have forgotten. It is a relationship
between a horse and a human in which the roles of teacher and
student, leader and follower, are constantly examined, learned
from and discarded until perfection is achieved. It’s a
way of life.” -
Peggy Smith

Gaited
Horse Trainer Liz Graves takes Susan's mare Autumn for a
spin.

An
easy life doesn’t teach us anything.

In
the end it’s the learning that matters: what we’ve
learned and how we’ve grown.

-
Richard Bach

Mindfulness in and out of the Saddle

Students must realize that their practice of dressage
(or Zen) mirrors their entire lives. It is not an isolated activity,
removed from the rest of someone's lifestyle. It calls on the
state of a person’s inner life, which in today’s world
is often far from stillness....

If we learn to live moment to moment and do less with
our thoughts and our bodies, we will express our horsemanship
with less struggle and greater artistry. It will simply come through
us from the horse, uninterrupted by our “great love”
to complicate things.

When
a rider discovers this type of resistance-free partnership is
possible, why would they ever again want to resort to force and
leverage equipment to make a horse comply?

Saddles That Fit!
strives to give owners the knowledge that will enable them to
know they have the right saddle; one that fits, and will enable
light hands and an independent seat to help them on their path
to that ultimate horse-human partnership.

-
Susan, Saddles That Fit!

(Horsemanship) is a grand passion. It
seizes a person whole and, once it has done so, he will have to
accept that his life will be radically changed. -
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.

Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.—Ranier Maria Rilke: Letters to a Young Poet